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Highland Festival turns Estes Park into British Isles

By Quentin YoungLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
09/05/2013 12:24:13 PM MDT

Updated:
09/06/2013 11:58:29 AM MDT

A young piper marches down Elkhorn Avenue during the annual parade for the 2012 Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival. The festival is expected to draw more than 80,000 people this year. (Walt Hester/Estes Park Trail Gazette)

What: Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival

When: Thursday, Sept. 5, through Sunday, Sept. 8

Where: Various locations in Estes Park, including the Stanley Park Fairgrounds

If you're in Estes Park this weekend, don't be surprised if it seems as if you mysteriously crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

The Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival runs through Sunday, and it promises to transform the town into a carnival of Celtic culture. The multiday annual event features music, food, jousting, athletic competitions and other attractions rooted in traditions lifted from the British Isles.

The event started more as a family get-together in 1976, but founder James Durward has nurtured it into a massive gathering that is expected to draw about 90 clans and more than 80,000 people this year, making it the largest festival of its kind in the country, Durward said. So much goes on at the festival it takes pages to list all the activities.

"It's like a 16-ring circus," Durward said.

One of the highlights every year is Tattoo Estes. In this case, a tattoo is a performance of patriotic music by marching players, and the term came from a British military command to close beer taps and perform for the commanding officer, Durward said.

"There's a lot of history to it, a lot of pomp and ceremony," he said.

Another main attraction is the jousting competition. About 30 jousters plan to compete this year.

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